Feb 3 1964
From The Space Library
NASA established RANGER VI Review Board, composed of members from NASA Hq., Langley Research Center, and Goddard Space Flight Center, and chaired by Deputy Associate Administrator for Industry Affairs Earl D. Hilburn, to review program effect of RANGER VI failure. The Board would review results of failure analyses and corrective procedures being prepared by JPL, then make recommendations regarding remainder of Ranger flight program. At press conference, NASA Associate Administrator Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr., explained that the single aim of the Board was to determine when Ranger VII would be launched. Until the mystery of RANGER VI's failure was solved, NASA was delaying launch of Ranger VII, which also would have mission of photographing lunar surface. (NASA Release 64-26; Simons, Wash. Post, 2/4/64; Finney, NYT, 2/4/64)
Nike-Cajun sounding rocket was launched from Wallops Island, Va., in coordination with Nike-Apache launch at Ascension Island, third set in current NASA series to obtain data on high-altitude winds and atmospheric temperatures. A correlated launch from Ft. Churchill, Canada, was postponed due to sound interference problems. The Wallops experiment was timed to coincide with the annual east-to-west "warming trend", was to measure its effects on the upper atmosphere. The experiments were designed to obtain measurements at altitudes ranging up to 55 mi. The Wallops experiment used grenade payload; for the Ascension experiment, the grenade payload was replaced with pitot-static probe to measure densities, pressures, and temperatures. The series was being conducted for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. (Wallops Release 64-12; NASA Rpt. SRL)
NASA and U.S. Dept. of Commerce announced agreement to develop National Operational Meteorological Satellite System (NOMSS). Signed by NASA Administrator James E. Webb and Secretary of Commerce Luther H. Hodges, agreement provided for NOMSS which would be based on NASA-developed Tiros technology and would become operational in 1965. Compared with earlier plans, this joint program was expected to save Dept. of Commerce some $125,000,000 over five-year period. Once NASA orbited the satellites, Weather Bureau would operate and control the system and analyze, process, and distribute the meteorological data gathered by the satellites. Under reimbursable order from Weather Bureau, NASA would design, procure, test, launch, and track the weather satellites. (NASA Release 64-25; Commerce Dept. Release G 64-20; Text, NMI 2-3-30)
14 men selected last October for astronaut training reported to NASA Manned Spacecraft Center to begin training for the Gemini and Apollo space flight crew pool. (MSC Release 64-24)
Dr. Wernher von Braun, Director of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, said at Washington press luncheon that the two astronauts in Project Apollo's Lunar Excursion Module would stand up during the descent to the moon. He described support gear-like elasticized parachute harness-which would cushion the landing for the crewmen. Elimination of chairs and rearrangement of LEM's gear permitted weight reduction of 1,000 lbs., he said. (Halsell, Houston Post, 2/4/64)
FAA began sonic-boom study program at Oklahoma City, Okla., generating sonic booms at the levels predicted for supersonic transport operations to determine public acceptability of these levels. Data acquired from the 26-week program would be used in planning and design of U.S. supersonic transport. FAA conducted the program with cooperation of USAF and NASA; USAF provided F-104 aircraft to generate the booms and NASA researchers provided ground instrumentation to measure booms and boom effect. (FAA Release 64-3)
Interviewed in Boston Globe, Dr. Albert J. Kelley, Director of Electronics and Control Section of NASA Office of Advanced Research and Technology, said NASA planned a gradual buildup of personnel for the proposed electronics research center to a maximum of 2,100 in 1969. Year-by-year buildup: 1964, 50; 1965, 250; 1966, 550; 1967, 1,000; 1968, 1,600; and 1969, 2,100. Nucleus of the center's staff would be electronics task force currently operating in Washington. (White, Boston Globe, 2/3/64)
NASA submitted report to Congress on patent legislation: to House Committee on the Judiciary on H.R. 4482, to provide administration in the public interest of property rights to inventions resulting from R&D financed wholly or partially by public funds; to Senate Committee on the Judiciary on S. 1290, to establish uniform national policy for proprietary rights to inventions made through expenditure of public funds; and to Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences on S. 1444, to amend National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 to waive proprietary interests of the U.S. in inventions. (NASA LAR III/19)
Secretary of the Air Force Eugene M. Zuckert testified before House Committee on Armed Services: "In the field of military applications of space, our views as to the future remain unchanged. We believe that we must vigorously exploit the most likely avenues of interest, though we are not yet able to be definitive enough to describe man's military space role adequately to project specific weapon systems.. . "The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program, which replaced the Dyna-Soar, is a research program aimed at giving man the opportunity to operate in space so that we may determine whether and when the manned space vehicle will be militarily significant. The MOL program will provide much of the supporting knowledge for indicated future manned space systems. The timing of the program is based upon a technical decision that our primary need is to know what functions man can perform in orbit, before exploring, as completely as Dyna-Soar would have, the problems and techniques of controlled reentry. This latter will now be studied on a more limited developmental basis." (Text, AF Info. Pol. Ltr., 2/64)
Maj. Gen. T. C. Bedwell, Jr., Cdr. of USAF Aerospace Medical Div. at Brooks AFB, reported that four airmen spent 30 days in pure oxygen atmosphere with no apparent ill effects. The volunteers were confined in special chamber at Brooks AFB for six weeks. During the first two weeks they were in mixed-gas atmosphere while they were acclimating to the surroundings and practicing space-related techniques; then the chamber's atmosphere was converted to 100 percent oxygen. With no initial harmful effects, the airmen would continue under medical surveillance for a long period. "Longer tests of this type are planned," General Bedwell said. "We need many statistics, not just a few samplings, to draw any definite conclusions." (AP, Houston Post, 2/4/64)
General Curtis E. LeMay, Air Force Chief of Staff, testified before House Committee on Armed Services: "The Air Force program of research and development seeks to assure that this Nation is first in the development of military capabilities in space. We have some cause for optimism in this area. Our Titan III program is proceeding satisfactorily. In addition, we are under-taking the development of a medium altitude communications satellite program. . . . "The next major step toward the achievement of future space capabilities is the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) which was approved for development under Air Force management. The MOL will provide a means to fulfill the compelling requirement to acquire information essential to determining accurately the threat from space, the usefulness and the capabilities of man-in-space, and the unique advantages which may accrue from military space operations. It will also serve as a platform to support testing of equipment and procedures in the environment in which they will be used. "Although the Dyna-Soar program has been terminated, a need still exists for development of a maneuverable aerospacecraft capable of controlled reentry and precision recovery, ferrying missions to and from a space laboratory, transfer of men and equipment in space, and a wide range of other roles. . . ." (Text, AF Info. Pol. Ltr., 2/64)
Rocketdyne engine reliability of 100% in 135 orbital or deep space vehicle launchings over the last three years was reported in Space Business Daily. (SBD, 2/3/64, 175)
February 3-5: At aerospace medicine conference held at Brooks AFB, NASA Langley Research Center assistant director, Clinton E. Brown, said NASA was proposing a large space telescope in earth orbit capable of orbiting with manned orbiting research laboratory. "A preliminary step towards a very large scale telescope might consist of an enlarged orbiting astronomical laboratory (OAO) with a 100 to 120 in. aperture, but specifically designed to make use of recoverable film and the adjustment and operational advantages of a manned space control center. . . ." Brown said analysis made by Dr. Lyman Spitzer, Jr., Princeton Univ. astronomer, showed that "the moon is not the place for such an observatory but rather a manned earth orbiting system is to be desired." (Av. Wk., 2/24/64,71)
At space medicine conference, Brooks AFB, Lt. Gen. James Ferguson, USAF DO for R&D, said space rendezvous maneuvers of MOL with a winged ferry vehicle were under consideration: "We visualize such a ferry craft to be a lifting body with some maneuverability in the atmosphere for precision landing. Undoubtedly it would be able to carry more than two men, as well as be a logistics carrier." (M&R, 2/10/64, 35)
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